CHAPTER XI.

Sûdkar Nask.

1. The tenth fargard, Yâ-shyaothanâ 1, is about the complaint of the spirit of fires to Aûharmazd owing to seven descriptions of people. 2. First, owing to domestics considering it as contemptible and in an unresisting state (agangîh), molesting it immoderately, and making use of it with unwashed hands; also the damsel who has introduced fire into the sole of her foot, and the bursting of the blister (âvilag); and a weapon brought out into its splendour. Second, the complaint owing to the carriers of fire from that abode [where the provision of care for fire is as a law to them, to that abode] 2 where the provision of care for fire is not as a law to them. 4. And there, owing to the arrival and preparation of the demons, it lay stupefied, like a powerful youth who is feverish and in a languid state; and its cure from that sickness (ayôyakîh) was by bringing forward to it their pure sandalwood, or benzoin, or aloe-wood, or pomegranate 3, or

whatever there was of the most odoriferous of plants. 5. Third, the complaint owing to the hussy 1 unto whom it happens, through menstruation, that the stench and filth owing to the menstruation is brought to it (the fire); and its sickness and stupefaction owing thereto are as written above. 6. Fourth, the complaint owing to the hussy who, dropping her knee on to the fire-stand, arranged her curls; the falling of damp and moisture from her head, with the hair and filth therefrom, into the fire; the consumption of it discontentedly, and the sickness and stupefaction owing thereto. 7. Fifth, the complaint owing to the father, or guardian, of a child for not keeping the child away from the fire; and the bodily refuse and other unlawfulness that come upon it from such children. 8. Sixth, the complaint owing to the adversity which the unpurified infidel (agdênô) may bring upon it, by blowing the breath of his mouth upon it in directing its use, and it becomes incalculable. 9. Seventh, the complaintwhich, one says, is more awful and more grievousowing to those who use it as an ordeal for a falsehood, and, when it is made evident thereby as to the acquitted and convicted, they become of a different opinion about it.

10. At the place of complaint that which is polluted is put forward together with that which is pure, and the increase of it (the fire) is through lawful and unlawful operation; its burning alone

and increasing are such as when both would be as a necessity for it, and undesired and rapid burning and increasing 1 are those which are polluted by burning and insatiably consuming; and in that which is an operation unlawfullythe burning alone and increasing being [such as when] 2 both would be as a necessity [for it]the increase is troubled.

11. This, too, he 3 says: 'I am not of the world here, and from here I will extricate myself, from the earth up to the sky; I am also thy son 4, more to thee 5 than any of the other creatures.' 12. And Aûharmazd spoke to him thus: 'So thou shouldst stand over the fire, in thy proper duty as [a spirit 6], carrying that club; [it is a substantial means, because I produce it, through which] thou turnest off [the whole bodily existence], some to the endless light, and some to the endless darkness.'

13. This, too, that he who shall provide care for, fire has paid the greatest reverence unto Aûharmazd. 14. The propitiation of the righteous is the best thing, and their vexation is the worst; when pleased they favour one, and it is the law of the sacred beings that they promote; [when vexed they wound, and it is the demon that they restrict.

Footnotes

186:1 The first two words of the seventh, and last, hâ of the first Gâtha (Yas. XXXIV, 1), here written yâ-shyâôsnŏ in Pahlavi in both MSS. This fargard may perhaps be considered as a homily upon Yas. XXXIV, 4.

186:3 The traditional equivalents of the four sweet-scented vegetable substances, Av. urvâsna, vohû-gaona, vohû-kereti, and hadhâ-naêpata, which are mentioned in Vend. VIII, 2, 79, IX, 32, XIV, 3, p. 187 XVIII, 71 as acceptable fuel for the sacred fire, or scent for fumigation; their Pahlavi names are merely corruptions of these Avesta words.

187:1 The word gêh, 'courtezan,' is used here and in § 6 merely as a general opprobrious term for a woman.

188:2 The words in brackets are supplied by guess, to fill up a blank space left by the repairer of B on one of his patches. In K the passage is shorter, and stands as follows:'and in that which is unlawful operation it is troubled by the increase.'

188:3 The spirit of fires mentioned in § 1. This dialogue seems to be a quotation from the original Pahlavi version of the Nask.